Tuesday, May 26, 2015

How to install and configure Oracle Virtual Server 3.2 at home (Part 1/2)

How to install and configure Oracle Virtual Server 3.2 at home (Part 1/2)

As a DBA we do like to play with features and versions a lot, now with the release of Oracle 12c I wanted to take my virtualization system to another level ;-)
I have been using VirtualBox on Linux for a while but I know how much power I can get using “real” hyperthreaded virtualization, so I decided to give Oracle Virtual Server a try after seeing small PCs running OVM and hosting three 11g RAC virtual nodes at Oracle university.
Requirements (software, virtual hardware and real hardware)
OVM needs 2 main components, one is the VM server, which will host the Virtual Machines and a Management console (VM Manager), which requires a separate server (can be a virtual machine).
For VM MANAGER I will use a Virtual Box machine as follows.
Oracle Enterprise Linux 6
2GB RAM
25GB Disk space
For the VM server I will be using a quad-core machine with 2 hard drives. The more memory you have the better because OVM does not support memory overcommitment. This means that you can install as many VMs as your memory support.
Yes, we need at least 2 HDD, one used as the installation/boot disk, the other one will be used as local storage for VMs.
Note: the second disk has to be raw, no partitions in it.
Note 2: As an alternative you can use external storage, like those disk boxes that offer iSCSI or NFS (or another server sharing its disk like FreeNAS), if you have external storage the VM server machine needs only 1 HDD.
Installation:

I did an installation from scratch using Oracle Enterprise Linux 6, alternatively you can download the “VirtualBox Template for Oracle VM Manager” from Oracle that includes everything preconfigured (I haven’t tested it).
Follow this link with instructions and details.
This template contains the following software components :
Oracle Linux 5 update 9 with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (2.6.39)
Oracle VM Manager 3.2.4
Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3
OMySQL 5.5
Now back to the installation, go to this link  and download the software, you may need to create an account to access the “Oracle Software Delivery Cloud”.
I downloaded the following packages (always use the latest version):
  • VM SERVER: Oracle VM Server 3.2.6 for x86_64 (64 bit) –BURN a CD with this one.
  • VM MANAGER: Oracle VM Manager 3.2.6
Using Virtual box console we add the VM MANAGER ISO image to the Virtual machine with Linux installed, then configure Oracle Public YUM, see how here.
As root user we mount the ISO image and install some required packages and prepare the system running the createOracle.sh script, which will configure users, permissions, OS limits and firewall.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
cd /mnt
yum install libaio 
yum install unzip
cd /mnt
./createOracle.sh
#Wait for this to finish and then proceed with the instaler

./runInstaller
The installation offers 4 options:
Please select an installation type:
1: Simple
2: Standard
3: Uninstall
4: Help
I chose option “1: Simple” it will install everything, including MySQL, this way memory requirements are only 1.5GB of RAM.
By selecting “2: Standard” we can use another database like XE or SE, which needs to be previouslt installed and the machine will require at least 4GB RAM.
During installation you will have to provide passwords to connect via Web Browser, remember them.
Take note as well of the URL provided to access the console later and wait for the installation to complete.
Then lets install VMServer, insert the previously burned CD in your machine and boot it up.
The installation is quite easy and straight forward, just follow the defaults and fill up the blanks. In the disk partitioning section remember to use only one disk, leaving the other(s) untouched – no partitions on it(them).
During installation you will have to provide passwords for the agent and root, remember them and wait for the installation to complete.
All is installed now, but we are not even close to start creating virtual machines.
In the part 2 of this post I’ll explain how to configure VM Manager, with some screenshots prepared.
Links:
Download software and official info: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/downloads/index.html
All Virtualization documentation for version 3.2:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E35328_01/index.html
Official install guide – VM MANAGER:http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E20065_01/doc.30/e18548/toc.htm

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